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Lackluster Bidding Dampens Second Night at Christie’s

A combination of high prices and middling quality made for a disappointing night on Tuesday at Christie’s, where paintings by Picasso, Modigliani and Léger failed to receive even one bid.

The Rockefeller Center salesroom was overflowing with dealers and collectors from all over the world watching to see if the market would pick up after disappointing results Monday evening, when works from the estate of the Geneva-based dealer Jan Krugier performed well below expectations.

Of the 46 works on offer on Tuesday, 11 failed to sell. The evening totaled $144.2 million, below its $188 million low estimate.

“When something is priced well, the market is savvy,” said Ken Yeh, a former chairman of Christie’s Asia, who now works for Acquavella Galleries. “They know what’s good and what is not. And they know when the estimates are too aggressive.” After the sale, officials at Christie’s said that they noticed a surge in buying from all parts of Asia.

The evening’s star was a painting by Giacometti, an artist far better known for his sculptures. But there were no bids anywhere in the salesroom. That did not matter much, because the 1954 portrait of the artist’s brother Diego — the cover image of the evening’s catalog — had basically been sold before the auction. Christie’s had arranged a third-party guarantee, an undisclosed sum, said to be close to $30 million, promised to the seller regardless of the outcome — financed, and effectively bought, by someone outside the auction house.

The painting, which had belonged to Jeffrey Loria, the New York dealer and owner of the Miami Marlins, brought $29 million, or $32.6 million with fees. Christie’s had optimistically estimated it would sell for $30 million to $50 million, already a record price for a painting by the artist. (That price smashed the previous record set at Sotheby’s New York in May 2008 — before the financial markets crashed — when a 1964 portrait sold for $14.6 million.)

Photo

“Diego en chemise écossaise,” a 1954 portrait of Alberto Giacometti’s brother, was the evening’s star, selling for $29 million.Credit
2013 Alberto Giacometti Estate/Licensed by VAGA and ARS, New York

(Final prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent of the first $100,000; 20 percent of the next $100,000 to $2 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

One of many disappointments: “Mann und Frau (Umarmung),” a gouache by Egon Schiele from 1917 depicting a naked couple in a hot embrace, went unsold without a bid. It was another bit of bad news for the anonymous seller, said to be the hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, whose firm, SAC Capital Advisors, agreed earlier this week to plead guilty to insider trading violations and pay a record $1.2 billion penalty. The estimate — $5 million to $7 million — seemed sensible since the gouache had been on the auction block at Christie’s three years ago, selling for $7.3 million.

There were even bigger failures on Tuesday night. A Modigliani portrait of Monsieur Baranowski, a Polish painter, had been expected to bring $25 million to $35 million. It went unsold, as did a 1963 Picasso, “Le peintre et son modèle dans un paysage,” depicting the artist and a reclining nude al fresco, which was expected to sell for $25 million to $35 million.

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Collectors and dealers hoping for strong sales could look to several rare works on paper by artists like van Gogh and Henry Moore, which were fought over by buyers. Van Gogh’s pen-and-ink drawing of his house in Arles from 1888 was estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, and several telephone bidders helped lift the price to $5.4 million with fees. It had last been at auction at Christie’s in London 10 years ago, where it brought $1.4 million.

Another big surprise: A 1923 colorful painting by Kandinsky, “Schwarz und Violett,” that had been estimated at $4.5 million to $7.5 million, sold to David Nahmad, the Manhattan dealer, for nearly $12.6 million.

“The estimate was low,” Mr. Nahmad said after the sale. “When have you seen a Kandinsky of that quality at auction?”

Asked if he thought he got a bargain, he added, “Absolutely.”

A version of this article appears in print on November 6, 2013, on Page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Lackluster Bidding Dampens 2nd Night at Christie’s. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe